Setting Up the Stage

Buying and Setting Props

Lanette diligently works on her singing career and hits Level 4 after a couple weeks. She's been saving up and has about $1500, which is plenty to set a stage the way she wants. She still doesn't have any steady gigs, but the park and coffeehouse keep inviting her back after auditions, so it's time for her to make a stage her way.

The next time she gets to the park, she chooses the "Set up the Stage..." | "Create a Custom Setup" command. This pauses the game and takes her into a special version of Buy Mode. You only have three tabs to worry about: FX machines and lights, props, and miscellaneous props. The last two are basically the same thing, and the game doesn't ship with any in the "Miscellaneous" category (some are available to buy on The Sims 3 Exchange).

All props will help increase the audience's opinion of your shows, but you'll get a much better boost if you keep a similar theme among your props. FX machines and lights are not part of any theme, but will greatly boost your shows since everyone loves a good light show or pyro blast. FX machines are more expensive as a result, so she only buys a single FX pod for now.

Once you have selected an object, you can place it on the stage as you would place any other object from Buy Mode and Build Mode. However, rather than placing objects on a grid, you'll have to place them on specific points on the stage. Because Lanette stands in the center of the stage to sing, everything there (shown by a red X on the floor) is off-limits. You can place objets on any blue X in the back, or any round "outlet" on the front. For lights, you can orient them any way you want, so the lights could highlight the performer or the audience if you really wanted them to.

Lanette places her FX pod in the back of the stage right in the center. In theory, it'll go off right behind her, creating a neat little sparkle or fire effect as she sings. As with Buy Mode and Build Mode, the game doesn't dectect your layout or judge what's "good" or what's "bad": you could stick a prop directly in front your performer and the game doesn't care. Lanette just decides this is the placement she likes the best.

After she places her FX pod, she checks out the props list. It's several pages long with a small variety of themes, though there is no blatant indication what constitutes the "theme." It's still fairly obvious, as you can group similar objects with the same brand name, or the same general appearance. Unlike the rest of the Buy Mode catalogue, props are not just listed from least to most expensive, but groups and themes tend to stick together. For example, the Katy Perry sweet themed objects will be in a group together at the end of the list if you bought the Katy Perry special edition of the game.

Some props lend themselves to a particular profession over another, such as the saw box prop being better for magicians. Again, it doesn't matter what props you have (Lanette could still benefit from a saw box prop), but keeping similar themes lead to bigger boosts.

Given her small budget, Lanette only purchases a few. She prefers black and purple clothing to match her hair, and the gothic Blackfyre brand of objects is right up her alley. She buys a Blackfyre Gothic Backdrop, a couple candelabras, and a couple gargoyle statues for the front of the stage. You can see the finished result in the screenshot to the right.

With her bank account almost drained, she decides to stop now before she runs out of food money. The moment you leave Buy Mode, you'll get an option to save this layout for quick retrieval later. You can save only one layout per Sim; if Lanette decides to move stuff around the next time and saves again, this layout will be overwritten.

Even if you don't save, the objects will be safe, as you'll see in a moment. For now, Lanette saves this layout and then begins her concert. Most objects are static even if animated, but the FX pods and lighting systems can be manipulated even during the concert. Time still flows, so if you want to switch effects, you may want to pause before doing so, or else your performer will just stand there and waste time to the disappointment of the audience. Once again, the game doesn't detect the exact effects you're using, so feel free to do whatever you want: the mere fact you have the objects and effects going will increase the fans' opinion of the show.

Even if you set the FX pods to a specific effect, or lighting pods to specific colors, the objects will regularly change to their default settings (lightning for the former, white for the latter), then switch back to your settings. Because this happens on a change of animation as if on a beat, it's unknown whether this is a bug or by design.

After the concert, any objects that you used will be placed into your family's inventory, accessible through Buy Mode and Build Mode once you're back home. You can sell them here if you want, but leaving them in there allows quick access during gigs. You can even buy FX pods, lights, and props to place and use around the house, though they don't exactly do you any good there. Remember that if you drag an object such as an FX pod out of your family inventory, and it was a part of your saved layout, it will not appear when you load up your venue layout.

Note that if you move your performer to a new house, her stage layout will be wiped. The actual items will be safe, and will remain in the family inventory. However, you'll have to personally set up the stage again and re-save your layout.